British Businesses will be given greater access to global markets more quickly as the UK publishes its first Trade Strategy since leaving the EU.

The Strategy will make the UK the most connected nation in the world and secure billions worth of opportunities for businesses, helping deliver the economic growth needed to put money in people’s pockets, strengthen local economies, create jobs, and raise living standards.

It takes a more agile and targeted approach than the previous government’s, focusing on quicker, more practical deals that deliver faster benefits to UK businesses. It strengthens trade defences, expands export finance – especially for smaller firms – and aligns trade policy with national priorities like green growth and services. It’s a smarter, more responsive plan for a changing global economy.

The Trade Strategy comes amid a backdrop of turbulent economic waters, resurgent protectionism and unfair trading practices creating significant challenges for businesses and industries across the whole of the UK. Together with our modern Industrial Strategy – a plan to grow the UK’s growth-driving sectors – we are strengthening businesses at home and setting clear direction to ensure success abroad and create high-paid, secure jobs in every part of this country.

It follows three significant trade deals agreed last month with huge benefits for UK businesses, jobs and consumers. Not only does our deal with India add £4.8 billion to the economy and £2.2 billion to wages each year, its reduced and liberalised tariffs means more whisky and gin is likely to be sold to Indian consumers and British shoppers could see cheaper prices on things like clothes, footwear and food products.

Our landmark deal with the US, the only one they have agreed with any country, protects hundreds of thousands of British jobs from automotive workers in the West Midlands, to aeroplane builders in Wales, to steelmakers in Scunthorpe. It shows the government delivering on its promise to champion British businesses and put jobs and livelihoods first.

The EU agreement, meanwhile, cuts red tape and improves access to our biggest trading partner. It means Scottish salmon farmers can sell their fish more easily to the EU, Welsh sausages and lamb mince exports will no longer be blocked, and British pets can join their owners on holiday with less headache.

Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said: 

“What works for business, works for Britain. It means more jobs, more opportunities, and more money in people’s pockets. 

“That’s why I’ve backed British industry through global headwinds – securing major trade deals with the US, India and the EU that protect jobs and drive growth right across the country. 

“Today’s Trade Strategy is a promise to British business: helping firms sell more, grow faster, and compete globally. It’s about delivering growth as part of our Plan for Change—and making sure working people feel the benefits.”

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:

“The UK is an open trading nation but we must reconcile this with a new geopolitical reality and work in our own national interest  

“Our Trade Strategy will sharpen our trade defence so we can ensure British businesses are protected from harm, while also relentlessly pursuing every opportunity to sell to more markets under better terms than before.  

“Broad and complex trade deals like we secured with India will bring billions to our economy every year but to deliver the Plan for Change we will strike more agile, targeted deals that exploit the sectors which drive the most growth for our economy.”

Trade Minister Douglas Alexander said: 

“This new hard-headed, data driven, and agile approach to trade policy is guided by our pragmatic patriotism. In this changed and challenging world, we will promote what we can and protect what we must to advance the UK’s national interest.  

“Through our Trade Strategy, we are supporting our businesses to expand and export with a wider range of trade tools that harness our high-growth industries of the future to deliver this government’s Plan for Change.  

“As we target these agreements, we will take every step necessary to safeguard British businesses from the increasingly protectionist mood in much of the world by sharpening our defensive toolkit.

“To complement the Trade Strategy, we have also today published the Global Trade Outlook 2025 which explores the long-term trends that may shape the global economy and international trade in the coming decades.”

The Trade Strategy:

• Unlocks £5 billion worth of opportunities for UK exporters through the new Ricardo Fund, which will tackle complex regulatory issues, shape global standards, and remove obstacles for UK businesses selling abroad.
• Expands UK Export Finance (UKEF)’s capacity by £20 billion to a total of £80 billion, announces a new Small Export Builder to give smaller firms better access to export protection insurance, and introduces improvements to help overseas buyers finance repeat orders from trusted UK suppliers in a more streamlined way.
• Vows to bolster our trade defence toolkit and make our trade remedies system more agile, assertive, and accountable to guard British businesses against global turbulence and the growing threat of unfair trading practices.
• Targets more mutual recognition of qualifications to boost the UK’s status as a services superpower – the 2nd biggest exporter of services in the world.
• Builds on existing clean energy and green sector agreements with partners including Norway, Japan and South Korea and explores new, deeper cooperation with markets such as Brazil, the Philippines and Mexico.
• Announces the UK will join the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), a temporary arbitration arrangement for resolving appeals to WTO trade disputes, demonstrating our commitment to an effective rules-based international trading system